The Structure Of Ibm Into A Mix Of Centralization And Decentralization

A structure depends on the organization 's objectives and strategy. In a very centralized structure, the highest layer of management has most of the choice creating power and has tight management over departments and divisions. In a much suburbanized structure, the choice creating power is distributed and also the departments and divisions could have totally different degrees of independence. Wal-mart’s structure is built upon its risk management, safety and claims management process. Google Inc. has gained much attention and acclaim for its unusual organizational culture, which is designed to establish loyalty and creativity. Although both Google and Wal-mart focuses on risk management and they specialized on two different factors. Google focus more on creativity, loyalty and keeping its employees happy. Wal-mart tends to help customers by saving money, claims and promoting within the company.

During the 2001 functional reorganization, three cross-functional business councils were created with the goal of “aligning the organization and driving productivity gains… while ensuring that a customer-mindset remains the company’s focus every step of the way”. These councils continued to expand and improve between 2001 and 2007 (see Appendix 1). The capability to create additional capacity in the form of organization and product expansion for Cisco was the driving force behind the internal governance system. Although this new collaborative system increased and altered previous methods and processes Cisco leaders, management and VP’s were accustomed to, thus acting as a resisting force, the existing culture at Cisco was such to embrace change rather than fight it.

Organizational structure is a system used to define a hierarchy within an organization which improves operational efficiency by providing clarity to employees at all levels of a company. A systematically outlined structure can also provide direction for internal promotions, allowing companies to create employee advancement routes for entry-level workers. In other words, it identifies each job, its function and where it reports to within the organization. Harley-Davidson’s organizational structure, for example, assists centralized control of the business through the company’s arrangement of its components in terms of their interactions and functions. As one of the world’s oldest motorcycle manufacturers in the world, Harley-Davidson Inc. maintains this organizational structure and centers its current focus on a limited number of markets. While the business continues to grow by international expansion, Harley-Davidson’s corporate structure focuses mainly on the fact that most of the company’s revenues are generated in the United States. Thus, Harley-Davidson has a functional organizational structure that is based on the company’s current focus on the motorcycle markets in developed countries, especially the United States, in addition to ensuring centralized control of business activities. The basic characteristics of Harley-Davidson’s organizational structure include Function based groups, Centralization, and Global hierarchy.

The organization of power within a corporation is a rigid dichotomy between centralization and decentralization. Substitute strategies can exist anywhere along the spectrum whether they are completely centralized, completely decentralized or somewhere in between. Though Cervus’ methods are substitutable, centralized policies have not proven to be nearly as successful in maintaining

6. Organization development consultant David Nadler was interested in developing a model of how large companies cope with restructuring in a competitive business environment. With a team of consultants, he followed the restructuring process of Xerox Corporation for two years. He interviewed the CEO and the top managers at Xerox. He observed the behavior and analyzed the speeches of the CEO and the top managers. Nadler and his team collated and interpreted the information they had collected, and wrote up a detailed account of Xerox’ restructuring process,

Each division is operating independently with its own division manager. Also, each division’s performance had been judged on its profit and return on investment (ROI). The company policy of decentralizing responsibility and authority for all

  1.Why did the US organizational structure shift from product grouping in the 1950s to a matrix in the 1980s? Why did the European organizational structure shift from geographic grouping in the 1950s to category management in the 1980s? Why were the two structures integrated into a global cube in the 1990s?

Q1. What is the primary objective of IBM’s advertising? How have the objectives of its advertising changed over the years?

Q1. What is the primary objective of IBM’s advertising? How have the objectives of its advertising changed over the years?

Traditional companies with boundaries, rules, and extensive plans are at a supreme disadvantage in today's globalized world, where technology changes daily and the value chain commands changes of its own. In a traditional company where people are categorized into neatly defined positions with their job descriptions filed in triplicate in the human resources department, the way a company plans its business can cause it to sink or swim. Bad planning can mean lost opportunities, being overtaken by the competition, loss of revenues, or watching its niche slip away because of a new technology, an alteration in the global marketplace, or simply a failure to market its product effectively. When changes occur, they happen too

In my opinion, Louis Gerstner’s was a brilliant strategist which turn the table around for IBM. A successful strategist are people who can gain better understanding and critically analyze the situation and able to develop strategies to match their competitors. As the CEO of IBM, first thing Louis does was to perform a corporate appraisal of the company. Corporate appraisal is a process where company review their entire organization to gain an understanding of its readiness to interact successfully with the external environment in which it operates and develop the best strategies to stay competitive in the market (Jain,S.C. et all, 2012).

Businesses have numerous key departments which keep the structure running appropriately and supports the business to build and embellish in all worldwide markets. This report will consider what the key departments do for the business, in addition, this report will enlighten the research procedure used and significant complications which have been encountered throughout.

It did so in order to better focus its resources on changing customer needs as well as emphasize its strengths in the market place. The organizational structure now consists of centralized engineering and marketing organizations. This way the company has the ability to prevent product and resource overlaps and more effectively allocate its resources to areas yielding optimum profitability. The engineering side has eleven technology groups with people heading multiple groups and reporting to one person who then reports to the CEO. The marketing side has one head who reports to the CEO as well.

Founded in June 1911, IBM has always been a leading company in the technology industry and at the forefront of innovation. It is a manufacturer of computer hardware and software, and also provides infrastructure, hosting and consulting services. Before the 2000s, IBM was the largest PC vendor in the world. However, the hardware sales have continually declined since 2000, and IBM sold its PC group to Lenovo in 2004, as well as its x86 Server Business in 2014. In the new era of the technology industry, IBM has faced the challenge to transit from a hardware manufacturer to a service company.

After reading the case of the “Paradoxical Twins Acme and Omega Electronics”, I found Both Acme and Omega produce similar products and offer similar services. Acme president John Tyler is a very tough going individual and he is portrayed to be an autocratic individual because there is one way communication in Acme. The case provides an opportunity to evaluate both Acme and Omega’s organization structure of a business. Both companies used to have the same organizational structure but after they were sold to different investors, as a consequence of this, each company has its own procedures and company